The Voice

losing your voice can be embarrassing in more than one way

Demi’s arm snaked out fom under the duvet and her hand groped blindly for the offending thing on the bedside table, trying to silence it. She finally located it, snatched it and stabbed the snooze button before it woke her husband up..

“Aaaargh!” groaned Bruce, beside her.

Too late!

Bruce turned to his wife and yawned, revealing two beautiful tonsils. He smiled sheepishly at her.

“Good morning, Beautiful,” he said groggily.

Demi smiled back and said: “?????????”

No sound came out of her pretty mouth. She mouthed ‘good morning’ but nothing came out. Fear showed on her lovely face and she tried again. Still nothing. Bruce was clearly amused.

“What’s up, Gorgeous? Cat got your tongue?”

“Miaw,” went Tabby, at the foot of the bed, which, if you’re not versed in cat speak, means: I have nothing to do with it.

“You know, you look like Nemo with the sound muted.”

Demi swallowed, wet her lips, cleared her throat and tried again.

“S**t!” she managed to whisper.

“Honey, I’m not surprised you’re voiceless, today. Not after last night’s karaoke. You should’ve picked an easier song than Whitney Huston’s ‘I’ll always love you.”

“Fery funny,” hissed Demi.

“Tell you what, I’ll mix you some warm honey and a squeeze of lemon. It should do the trick. Go and take your shower."

Demi's shoulders slumped. She sighed and trudged towards the bathroom, looking dejected. Bruce went to the kitchen, singing “I’ll always looooooove youuuu.”

********

 

Demi held the glass with both hands and scrunched her face.

“Come on,” said Bruce, “you’re being childish.”

Demi took a tentative sip and grimaced.

“Go on, Demi, more.”

She gulped down the content of the glass and shuddered.

“There’s a good girl,” cheered Bruce, “now off you go or you’ll be late for work.”

“Work?” hissed Demi, “you think I…” She tried to clear her throat and continued:

“I’m showing a house to a customer. I’ll neet to explain thinks. I wish I knew sign lankuage. No, I’ll ask Petty to cofer for me then I’ll ko to the trukstore to ket somethink for this tamn nuisance. One think is sure. No more karaoke.”

                                                   *********

Demi rang the bell and thought: “I hope Doug’s not home. I couldn’t stand his leering and his innuendos. Not this morning.” In her head, the words were perfect.

Doug, her friend’s husband, never tried to hide his attraction to her. He never missed an opportunity to come on to her. Ok, she felt flattered but, still…

The door was opened by Doug. He beamed when he saw who was on the stoop.

“Why, hello, Angel face!” he greeted her, lust in his eyes.

“Is Petty home?” she whispered.

Doug cast a furtive glance over her shoulder and whispered back:

“No, she’s not. Come in, come in!” And stepped back, opening the door wide to let her in.

Author's Note

still struggling to come back. don't know if this is any good.

Reviews

[LastMonth]

Great Dialogue writing.
Great representation of someone losing their voice.

Going to join the others and say the Twist at the end is a bit hard to understand, would love clarification :O

But again, superb writing. You really got me trying to imitate her voiceless speaking to see how similar it would be. (With all the K's.)

[Woody]

thank you so much for your kind words LM.
when you whisper, certain sounds become what is called in linguistics "voiceless".
b,d,g,v,th,z (as in this) become p,t,k,f,th,s (as in think) that's why Demi's talk is so strange. Betty becomes Petty, for instance.
that damn ending that didn't come out as I was hoping.
when Demi asked her question, Doug had no way of knowing that she'd lost her voice and thought she was being conspiratorial so he whispered back: no, she's not. come in! thinking she finally relented and came to...
glad you enjoyed it all the same.

[Scrap]

Oh wicked!

I need some honey now. Though Im saving the lemon for Tequila. ;)

[Woody]

moral of the story: if you lose your voice, keep your mouth shut.
I hear that lemon and tequila make a good combination. I've never had tequila myself.
thanks for stopping in Scrap

[Scrap]

Dont u agree that some ppl with a voice need to shut up too?! :P

[Woody]

you're certainly right :)

[M.E.Lyle]

Hmm, an interesting ending leaving us with all kinds of assumptions, and you know what happens when we begin assuming things.
You are back my friend, and I'm glad to see it. I myself have hit the doldrums of writer's whatever.
My imagination struggles.

[Woody]

yes Mike. you're right. when you assume you make an a*s of u and me :)
I know what you mean about the writer's thingamabob.we're not getting any younger my friend.
thanks buddy for taking the time.

[Archos]

Damn my vocabulary! Not knowing what furtive meant spoiled the ending for me. Anyway, great job with the 'voiceless' language, I really liked that. The ending (once I got it!) was great too, as usually. Thanks for sharing!

[Woody]

don't worry too much about the vocabulary. we're all here to learn and get better. English is not my mother tongue either.
thanks a bunch for taking the time and enjoying this one, too.
gotta go but I'll swing by your page when I get back. Cheers :)

[...]

You're such an awesome writer, always giving so much character to your characters :) Thanks for smiles, Woody!

[Woody]

you flatter me, Dear. thank you so much.glad my rambling makes you smile :)

[-inactive now-]

Hahaha I think I get it... Great dialogue, I love the light-hearted feel that your stories have and how little puns and jokes you chuck in here and there, very pleasurable to read :)

[Woody]

thanks heaps Josian. so glad you found it entertaining. that's my main objective.

[MomzillaNC]

I don’t think there’s enough of this tale to make a fair assessment. More, please…

See, it’s good enough that I want to read more. So, get on with it and finish the story, please. Seriously, it’s engaging, but feels like the beginning of a comedy of errors.

[Woody]

ok I see what you mean but just like many of the other story, I work my way up to the punchline and that's what I did here.
I'll think about something to add but it depends on the inspiration. it comes and goes at my age.
thanks a million for taking the time, Momzilla.

[MomzillaNC]

Cool. yw

[Terpsichore]

Nicely written mate, the dialogue twixt the characters has an easy, natural flow.

I enjoyed the punchline, lots left to the imagination.


T

[Woody]

thanks a lot Terps. whispers always lead to misinterpretations and awkward situations :)

[Stan Lee]

I first read this while I was overseas and my data was.... you know, doing what data does when you're traveling...
I laughed out loud at the end. The story was easy to read and entertaining but I just thought that it took a tiny bit too long to get to the punch line. Could have just been me struggling with the scroll function on my phone though :)
Welcome back - looking forward to more.

[Woody]

I must be losing it! this is the third time I find a review I have not replied to! so sorry about the delay, jolly one.
thank you very much for stopping by. think it's a bit long? mmm! the way I see it is if I make it any shorter it'll be like any of the tons of jokes out there. so, I tend to stretch it out a bit to turn a simple joke into a semblance of a short story. truth is I enjoy delaying the punchline. I'm a bit of a masochist like that :)
convincing?

[Beccy]

Well, it's no struggle to read Woody and the hook in the last paragraph was perfectly cast.

Ahh, that hoarse, whispering voice; I bet Doug thought his ship had come in. :)


Beccy.

[Woody]

ta, luv. as you can see, I'm still struggling to come back.
I think I'd've reacted the same way if a drop-dead gorgeous lady whispered that question to me.
what's that? did you say: Men!

[roarke]

Nice work with the sore voice dialogue, adds dimension. Don't know where it's going, but let it simmer before moving on with it. You've quick-sculpted the characters nicely. Besides, it's like riding a bicycle, isn't it?

[Woody]

Hi roark. thanks for stopping by, my friend. long time no see.
just a littlle silly thing of mine. you should be used to it by now.
"don't know where it's going". it was leading to the punch line, actually. not clear? not funny?